Practical Soldering Project Kit, with Exercises and Exam

Purchased this kit as my eight year-old son is interested in electronics and I was interested in at least showing him how electronic devices are assembled in a more "real-world" manner compared to the educational toys he's had to date. As a secondary function my soldering skills are pretty poor so I figured for the cost I'd put this together and improve my skills. Little did I realize my kid would put 90% of this together on his own!The instructions that come with the kit are very well written and follow a sequence of ever-increasing complexity to allow you to hone your skills before you try something more challenging. There are resistor checks throughout the process to check your work for shorts or cold joints, and are a positive means to "grade" your work.The only negative is my eight year-old son has put together more of this kit than I have! Steady hands and an ability to focus are the keys to good soldering, and while I'd like to take credit for teaching him, this kit has more to do with his skills than me! Between my coaching and the instructions in the kit, he can tin the iron, select a component, insert it on the board, solder it, and clean the tip when he's done. He'll self-judge his joints based on what he read in the manual, which is helpful as he advances through the workbook. The joy on his face when he soldered his first jumper wire was only exceeded by his happiness when he soldered his first resistor! When he hugged me after his first resistance check was 100% successful was amazing.This is a great bonding project, and while I'm smart enough to know my days of being 'cool' are numbered, this kit briefly got me back into the 'cool dad' camp. Worth every penny and more!

I'm new to soldering so I bought this out of a recommendation from a friend who also used this product before. I have to say this product does really well in teaching you proper soldering practices and methods (it also gives a small crash course on electrical circuit components to boot!). Overall this product was well worth the buy, but the one thing I would have to complain about is the metal plating you actually apply the solder on. I was placing a soldering bridge between two points and I wanted to test if the connection was good, but the minute I tugged lightly on the solder bridge, it came right off the PCB...Other than that, I would highly recommend it to beginners and amateurs alike!

I bought this to practice soldering it has been a a long time since I have done a solder project and I wanted to get use to the hot air rework station I bought on ebay (GQ 5200 rework unavailable on here) and need some practice time with it. This kit was so much fun for me and when my 8 yr old saw what I was doing he wanted to try and he was learning about the components and also soldering. He now knows what a capacitor is and a resistor. When I was done I wanted another and I had already ordered the  Elenco Surface Mount Technology Kit  I did both of these over the weekend they were great. DONT READ TO MUCH INTO NEGATIVE REVIEWS!!! It was fun, I am buying another just for my 8yr Old!!!!

Great practice for starting out in robotics. This gives soldering practice, practice stripping insulation from wires, practice placing components on a printed circuit board, and practice testing circuits as you go along. Also plenty of exercises in naming resistors and fixing mistakes.The finished board produces a two-LED flashing lights circuit with on/off switch.My child did this in three hours. This is his second kit. ( the first was the European siren kit)

I purchased this soldering kit along with the  Elenco AmeriKit Learn to Solder Kit  also available on Amazon, and the other kit is MUCH better. Here's why:1) The other kit comes with a good soldering iron. Both kits have a spool of solder, but you'll have to buy a soldering iron if you get this kit.2) This kit, when finished, gives you a board that blinks two alternating red lights. The other one is an alarm system that not only blinks the two LED lights, but also plays the sound of a European alarm when it's turned on.Maybe it's just because I built this kit after the  Elenco AmeriKit Learn to Solder Kit , but I was highly disappointed when I saw the very few amount of parts that came with this kit. That feeling was only reinforced when I put it together, turned it on, and was rewarded by...two blinking lights. The other kit was much more satisfying, and I would highly recommend that one if you need to learn how to solder.I don't think anyone would need both kits to learn how to solder, either. One is sufficient to get you moving on to bigger and better projects, like robot kits.EDIT 12/16/2011: The price on this kit has gone down since I purchased it, and is now competitively priced compared to the other kit I bought. If you already have a soldering iron, this kit would be a reasonable purchase, but for only three dollars more, I still recommend the other kit mentioned.

Great learning tool for teaching yourself electronics. I bought it and used it to teach myself how to solder on its circuit board. Then I used the skills learned from this kit and replaced the capacitors on my guitar amp (from another kit).I have also used my new soldering skills for building some guitars from individual parts.You gotta start somewhere, and this is one of the best ways to start!

Using this to learn how to solder (for the first time). Once the supplied instructions are followed properly then you’d get blinking LEDs. Useful kit to learn on but it’s a poorly made board. My complaint - the metal pads on the circuit board weren't adhering to the board so they kept peeling off when applying solder. Instructions are clear to follow but not a quality board to work on.

Everything was fine